default header

News

World of Darkness

Moderator: JC Denton

World of Darkness

Unread postby dinopoke » 02 Mar 2013 14:40

http://www.ccpgames.com/en/products/world-of-darkness

logo.jpg


http://themittani.com/features/brief-hi ... ess-mmorpg

In November of 2006 at Eve Online’s fanfest, CCP announced it would be merging with White Wolf Publishing and that they had already begun planning “a World of Darkness Online.”

Then, for about 4 years, no one heard anything.

In 2010 at The Grand Masquerade - a yearly gathering for fans of White Wolf games - there was an announcement made that had me jumping up and down (which, as some of you know, is quite the feat!): The WoD MMO would be based on the classic World of Darkness. Why they decided to do this is a no-brainer to me, and hopefully now to you as well.

People slowly started to get excited about the game again. There was much discussion and speculation on many forums about the game, especially after CCP announced that that Incarna, the long-awaited “Walking-in-Stations” expansion would be released for Eve Online in the June of 2011. Many people thought that this would give a first look at what the engine behind the World of Darkness MMO might look like. Unfortunately the outrage that followed the expansion from the Eve Online community quickly overshadowed all of that. The Summer of Rage had begun.

Leading up to the summer of 2011, CCP had started to get a bit too big for their britches. They ramped up development on their new properties too fast and then pushed out a massive release to Eve Online that added very little in the way of gameplay and completely ignored long-standing balance issues. CCP didn’t just drop the ball in June of 2011; instead they dropped the ball, it bounced off their foot and was kicked right into the opponent’s goal (I literally have no idea what sport I just invented here!). Internal memos were leaked titled “Greed is Good”, the prices for vanity items in the real-money store were unheard of compared to other games and they refused to come out and say that their new store would never include “pay-to-win” items. CCP began losing subscribers in droves and they decided they needed to take some drastic measures.

In the fall of 2011 CCP decided to re-focus on Eve Online. They laid off 20% of their workforce, mostly in the Atlanta office which was the home of White Wolf. CCP claimed that development would continue on World of Darkness Online but with a significantly reduced staff. Quite a few long-time game designers and writers for White Wolf pen & paper games were also let go during this time, leaving both communities wondering about the future of this once proud publisher.


http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013- ... -maker-ccp

We'll catch a "tiny" glimpse of vampire MMO World of Darkness at this year's Eve Online Fanfest in late April, maker CCP has told me.

The secretive MMO is being played internally, CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson said, and has benefited from the restructuring that once looked like it had killed the project.

"It's going on very nicely," he told me. "A great example of focus and clearer priorities.

"We're playing it internally at CCP. It's actually a problem that some of our employees are losing themselves already in the World of Darkness as we go through the playtests.

"And we'll be showing a tiny piece of that also at Fanfest. So that is all I have to say about that at this time."

The last we heard of World of Darkness was in summer 2012 when the game was classed as in "active development".

The game's senior producer Chris McDonough had, months earlier at Fanfest 2012, taken to the stage to proclaim the project not dead after restructuring at CCP seemed to hit the World of Darkness Atlanta office hardest.

McDonough offered some detail about the game as well. He said it will feature real-world city locations like London, Paris and New York, and will be built on a sandbox philosophy with deep political systems that can put player Princes in charge of cities.

Those Princes will also have the power to inflict permadeath on other players, gulp.

There will be complex hand-to-hand combat and blood will be used as a currency. Inspiration is being drawn from Vampire: The Masquerade.

CCP's Fanfest presentation was uploaded to YouTube and features a small fly through a city environment in the game at the end. I've posted the whole thing below.


EVE Fanfest 2012: World of Darkness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch2vB1ZatPI

Environment Fly Through from EVE Fanfest 2012:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgYScVhAjjw
User avatar
dinopoke
 
Joined: 09 Mar 2011 08:14
Location: Sydney, Australia

Unread postby shubn » 23 May 2013 19:19

EVE Fanfest 2013: World of Darkness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxC8vX2zAgY

Senior Producer -- Chris McDonough and Creative Director -- Reynir Harðarson discuss the tools being used to create World of Darkness and answer appropriately vague questions about features and timetables.
User avatar
shubn
 
Joined: 10 Jan 2012 03:17
Location: France


Return to News